Hi everyone! We at The Smog are always looking for some feedback, so here's another polling thread. Post some feedback here and we'll take it into consideration for future issues.

Some questions to keep in mind:

What are your favorite articles? Why?

What can we do to improve for future issues?

What kind of articles would you like to see that we don't currently cover?

If you have any more questions or things you'd like to address, please feel free, but remember to justify your opinions! In addition, please try to keep everything civil. Keep all criticism constructive and not disparaging! Thanks.

Just wanted to say, that, although I thoroughly enjoy the Smog, the article about the fabulous pokemon was problematic, to say the least. By allowing writers to inject (IMO) imagined stereotypes of what encompasses and is seen in the gay community sets a precedent about what is discussable and what isn't. I know it's only pokemon, and it's the internet and all that, but I don't want to read about which pokemon are gay or not based around stereotypes. It's dumb, and bigoted.

C&C Leader

I know that some people will be slightly offended with my article in the assumption that I wrote it to possibly hurt people and "fit in" with the Internet crowd, but you should know that that was not my intention and I'm playing off of those stereotypes from a gay person's perspective. If anybody should be offended, it should be me, but I'm comfortable enough in my sexuality and in the culture, and mature enough to make fun of myself. If it was going to be an offensive article, it would have used different language entirely, including slurs and bashing gay people along with the Pokemon themselves. Instead, I was poking fun at how Game Freak (probably) unintentionally made some Pokemon designs and habits a bit fabulous and (imo anyway) obviously homosexual.

Indeed, don't take anything personally or think that it was malicious in any way. :)

As a VGC player, all the VGC articles definitely piqued my interest. Great read, them.

Race to the Bottom made me angry at points 'cause Ash's Bulbasaur was awesome ;A;
But overall again it was a hilarious read but it was a bit jerkish, basically I got the impression that those who don't competitive battle are fucking losers. And hey, sometimes I feel that way too :P

Didn't like Fabulous Pokemon, even if it was a joke that is a bit extreme.

And great, as a newer member reading all this stuff I can do, I'm getting really overwhelmed D:

Hmmm... Oglemi, I think the problem is that the userbase doesn't know you're homosexual. To us as the staff (and probably to the wider community) it was easy to overlook because we know you personally and what you were going for. If I think about it, it could be taken the wrong way by someone who doesn't really know the community (specifically you). Like, it's one thing for a gay guy to make gay jokes with his friends, and something else for them to put those jokes in a newspaper.

...but I really want to keep the name JAP for Judge a Pokemon (with the excuse that I'm ethnically Japanese...) so let's let this slide plz... :P

Rittercat's Race to the Bottom article was entertaining, though I felt that the second part was way to satirical. Not that sarcasm is bad, it adds humor to an article; but this was overloaded with it. It also sounded preachy, particularly the part about teambuilding.

I also didn't like the Dragonite reference: "an orange, pathetic excuse for a dragon". I like Dragonite and its design, and I'm sure others like the design of the other 'mons in that part. Just calling them incredibly ugly, isn't helping much.

Moderator

Forgive me if I've misunderstood, but I think The Smog is one of our greatest connections to "the outside", Pokémon fans who aren't into competitive battling but enjoy reading about Pokémon regardless. It's also a great lure to get newcomers into the forum.

In that sense, I've noticed that there are quite a few acronyms that aren't explained in the text. The article about Viable NFE's never says outright what an NFE is. It might seem obvious to us, but to outsiders... not as much. Would it be too much to ask to spell out "Not Fully Evolved" once in the introduction? In the RU Suspect Tread, what is an NP?

Judge a Pokémon is, as always, awesome, with mixed views on the different designs. I really hope it becomes a staple in The Smog.

The Smeargle's Studio thread is wonderful, though I miss an in-text summary of what the "extreme makeover" contest theme actually was this time. It deserves a mention, I think. Doesn't have to be more than "This round asked people to redesign the Vanillite line".

Yeah, tiny quirks, but another great issue overall. I already look forward to the next one!

The Smeargle's Studio thread is wonderful, though I miss an in-text summary of what the "extreme makeover" contest theme actually was this time. It deserves a mention, I think. Doesn't have to be more than "This round asked people to redesign the Vanillite line".

Click to expand...

The purpose of the 'tag-on' at the end is to pique your interest in what is currently going on in Smeargle's Studio. Curious about what the 'Extreme Makeover' actually was? Follow the link (and I think you did)!

Still, I'm glad to see that you liked both it and JAP, to which it is always a pleasure to contribute.

Honestly Oglemi, your article was fine, fantastic eve. I was laughing my ass off for the entire thing, and I didn't feel that it was in poor taste at all. Anyone who is actually offended by that article needs to stop being such a tight ass.

(This my opinion and should not to be taken seriously. If you are offended in anyway please take a picture of your saddest face and send it to me so i can lol at it.)

Hmmm... Oglemi, I think the problem is that the userbase doesn't know you're homosexual. To us as the staff (and probably to the wider community) it was easy to overlook because we know you personally and what you were going for. If I think about it, it could be taken the wrong way by someone who doesn't really know the community (specifically you). Like, it's one thing for a gay guy to make gay jokes with his friends, and something else for them to put those jokes in a newspaper

C&C Leader

Really, it doesn't matter that you're gay yourself. That doesn't mean that the article isn't still poorly thought out. If this site and Smog magazine were specifically catering to LGBTQ gamers, that would be one thing, because then we would all realize that the article is poking fun at stereotypes. However, I'd hazard a guess that most people in this site are not LGBTQ or very familiar with our culture, so in this context, the article is just perpetuating those stereotypes, pretty offensively at that.

Don't get me wrong. I of all people definitely appreciate some LGBTQ content in unexpected placed every once in a while. However, there's are still ways of doing that which are better or more poorly thought out that others, and this would be the latter. You don't get to say that the article wasn't offensive to gay people just because you're gay, because you don't speak for all gay people. It's certainly true that not all gay people are as conscious about gay issue as others. And if you're a straight person, then you definitely don't get to say that the article wasn't offensive, because you definitely don't speak for all gay people.

C&C Leader

I'm not turning this into a debate, and I never said in the disclaimer that I spoke for all gay people, I said that it's simply written from a gay person's perspective and is not meant to be offensive in its intention.

Whether or not people are mature enough to still take offense after knowing that it is not designed to be offensive, and that I even say in the disclaimer that I'm playing off of stereotypes for fun and not "perpetuating" them, is up to them.

In the end it's up to Setsuna and the Smog staff if this is something they want to have in the publication.

Taking offense is not a matter of maturity, and suggesting that it is is a rather immature thing to do. Just because something is not designed to be offensive doesn't mean that it isn't offensive. I can understand that about your intention and still think that what you actually did was bad. I'm not chastising your intention (because it really wasn't a bad one!); I'm just chastising the execution.

You need to understand that your audience does not know you, and, in many ways, having article written by a gay person is worse than if it were written by somebody deliberately trying to be offensive, because it gives the impression that these stereotypes are things that we embrace, which makes it okay for them to be perpetuated. You need to consider what people are going to take away from the article.

Honestly, this was one of the best (if not the best) Smog issues. I read every single article (sorry, I sometimes skip some parts T.T) I enjoyed most of the articles. It was really cool issue for newer, lower tiers players to present the weather playstyles. Featured UU: Rose! Yay! Honestly, awesome, Smog team ^^(yup demist, live to your dreams to contribube something someday to Smog(on). Ah, about Oglemi's article, I think it's okay and funny as long as you understand the intention of the article and words, jokes, etc. yourself. All hail Smog team!!!